The publication is reproduced in full below:
ELECTRICAL ENGINEER WHO PIONEERED SUBMARINE SONAR SYSTEMS, COMMUNITY
LEADER AND ACTIVIST, VETERAN, PHOTOJOURNALIST, FAMILY PATIARCH, AND
FIRST BLACK ELECTED OFFICIAL IN ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
______
HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE
of california
in the house of representatives
Friday, August 13, 2021
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, as a senior member of this body and the Committee on the Judiciary, as a witness to some of the revolutionary social and political changes in American life and society, and as a legislator dedicated to advancing public policies that improve the quality of life for all Americans and that make equality of opportunity and equal justice for all not just a virtue but a fact of American life, I rise to pay tribute to an unsung hero of the American Experiment, Jesse Frank Berry, who died at his home in Rockville, Maryland on Monday, August 9, 2021, at the age of 88.
In these tumultuous days of crisis and challenge, Members of Congress know well, perhaps better than most, how blessed our nation is to have such exceptional men and women who will go on to become leaders in their local communities, states, and the nation in the areas of business, education, law, government, philanthropy, the arts and culture, and the military.
We know this because we see them and benefit from their contributions every day as they serve the American people in our offices doing amazing work as congressional staff members.
What produces such persons and inspires them to want to do what they do and to do it so well?
Madam Speaker, as Occam's razor posits, the answer is pretty simple and straightforward; they come from all over the nation, and they are produced and nurtured and inspired by their first role-models and heroes: their mothers and fathers.
The life of Jesse Frank Berry, the father of my Chief Counsel, illustrates this perfectly, and I want to share briefly with all Members his accomplishments and experiences that provided so much pride and motivation to his four children, five. grandchildren, three great-
grandchildren, his siblings, surviving relatives, friends and loved ones, and the thousands of persons he never met.
Jesse Frank Berry was born on September 13, 1932, in Asheville, North Carolina, the first of the five children of Thomas and Eva Berry, descendants of South Carolina slaves and sharecroppers who survived daily indignities and injustices and nightly reigns of terror and violence.
Jesse Berry's family was part of the historic ``Great Migration'' that saw millions of black Americans migrate from the de jure segregated rural South in search of greater economic opportunity and freedom in the urban North.
The family of Jesse Berry, parents and siblings Dorothy, Doris, Thomas Leon, and Elmira, settled in on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio, in what is today the 11th Congressional District of Ohio, the district that sent Louis Stokes to the House of Representatives as Ohio's first African American congressman.
While Jesse Berry's father provided for the family working as mechanic and handyman and his mother provided a loving home, Jesse took advantage of the opportunity to attend school beyond the elementary grades and excelled in mathematics, mechanical design, and drafting as a student at East Tech High School, the alma mater of another and more famous Jesse, the legendary Olympic champion Jesse Owens, who did as much as anyone to discredit on the world stage Adolf Hitler's false creed of white supremacy and his big lie that Aryans were the master race.
After graduating from high school, Jesse Berry worked at a local factory in Cleveland for several years before being called to serve his country during the Korean War, where he served in the Signal Corps of the U.S. Army.
In December 1953, Jesse Berry married Bonnie Agnew and to this union was born four children, sons Jeffrey Thomas, Gregory Alan, Michael Leonard, and daughter Bonnie Eileen, all of whom would later go on to graduate from college and lead productive and constructive lives as lawyers, professors and teachers, serviceman, health counselors, and entertainment industry entrepreneurs.
In 1959, Jesse Berry and his wife Bonnie led what would soon be another great migration, heading west to California where Jesse had been accepted into the prestigious electrical engineering program at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, which he was able to finance with the G.I. Bill benefits he earned for his active duty service in the U.S. Army.
He would later earn a master's degree in electronic engineering from California State University at Long Beach.
After graduating from USC in 1962, Jesse Berry began his career as an electronic engineer, designing submarine sonar systems that were vital in securing America's victory in the Cold War, working for several of the country's leading aerospace companies and defense contractors, including Hughes Aircraft, North American Rockwell, General Dynamics, and Honeywell.
But while America was engaged in the Cold War on the international stage, domestically the demand of the Civil Rights Movement for a new social order of equal justice and opportunity for all was raging.
As Bob Dylan put it so memorably in his immortal ``The Times They are a-Changin'':
The line it is drawnThe curse it is castThe slow one nowWill later be fastAs the present nowWill later be pastThe order is rapidly fadin'And the first one nowWill later be lastFor the times they are a-changin'
Patriotic but ordinary Americans of goodwill, who deeply loved their country but harboring a passion for justice answered the call.
And in that number was Jesse Berry, the electronic engineer and sonar systems expert, who was active in the local Urban League and civil rights groups.
Because of his exceptional organizing and logistical skills, Jesse Berry was elected to serve as President of the NAACP for the Orange County, California chapter, where he spearheaded voting registration drives, educational symposia, awareness events, and consulted with civil rights leaders from across the state and around the country.
In April 1968, violence and destruction swept many areas of the nation following the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Memphis, Tennessee, but the city of Santa Ana in Orange County, California, was left unscathed.
That is due in no small measure to the wise counsel and guidance the heartbroken and anguished black residents of the city received from their respected leader, Jesse Berry, who organized a memorial service at the local municipal stadium attended by thousands who comported themselves with dignity out of respect and acceptance of Dr. King's philosophy of nonviolence.
The following year Jesse Berry would make history becoming the first African American to win elective office in Orange County, California, securing a seat on the Santa Ana Board of Education.
Throughout his life, Jesse Berry was the person that friends, neighbors, relatives, and persons who only knew him by reputation, went to for wisdom, advice, guidance, encouragement, or assistance.
But despite the pressing demands on his time and for his attention, Jesse Berry always remembered he was a dad to four children, stressing the importance of a good education and instilling in them a love of learning, showing them how to solve story problems and helping them with their homework, teaching them to swim, and to play baseball and not to be judgmental but to treat all persons with respect and dignity.
One of the things that was most dear to Jesse Berry was his love of nature and history; on cross-country trips back to visit relatives, he would often take detours and make side trips so his children could visit and experience the places and events that shape so much of their lives and instill in them a sense of wonder, awe, and appreciation.
So it was not at all unusual for Jesse Berry to regard Gettysburg, Valley Forge, Yosemite's Half Dome or Yellowstone's Ol' Faithful, the Badlands of South Dakota, the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, the Petrified Forest, New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns, Gettysburg, the Missouri Courthouse where the case of Dred Scott was decided, and United States Capitol as on the way from Los Angeles to Cleveland.
And Jesse Berry delighted in photographing these events to chronicle the adventure and relive the good times with his friends and neighbors as they watched the slideshow on his projection screen that he was the first to own.
Madam Speaker, the life of Jesse Frank Berry reflects so much the experiences of the ancestors of millions of persons of color in our great nation.
Jesse Berry lived through 16 presidents, 5 wars, the Great Depression and the Great Recession of 2008, the era of Jim Crow and the Great Society, the transcendent presidencies of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, the first black president, and the election of Kamala Harris, the first woman and person of color elected Vice-President of the United States.
Jesse Berry knew the anger and resentment that comes naturally to one whose family has been refused accommodations at motel or service in a restaurant because of their race.
Jesse Berry knew the pride of wearing the uniform of his country even though at the time he was denied many of the rights he was willing to risk his life to defend.
He knew the sacrifice it took to become the first in his family to graduate from college and the satisfaction that comes with the realization of a longheld goal.
Jesse Berry never lost faith in his country; instead, he worked to do his part to help it live up to the true meaning of its creed that all persons are created equal, and he passed that conviction and determination on to his children and everyone he touched during his remarkable nearly nine decade sojourn--on earth.
Madam Speaker, like so many others stretching all the way back to Saul, Jesse Berry ran the great race, he finished the course, he kept the faith, and he has now gone on to his great reward.
We can all find solace in the words of the philosopher Sophocles who said: One must wait until the evening to know how splendid the day has been.
To Jesse's widow, Mazel Pernell, his siblings, children, relatives, neighbors, friends, and loves ones, but especially to his beloved grandchildren Samantha, Shyeita, Michael, Connor, and Jesse, and his great-grandchildren Alexis, Desmond, and Sydney, I hope it is a comfort to you that so many persons share your grief and are mourning the loss of a truly consequential life well lived.
I ask the House to observe a moment of silence in memory of Jesse Frank Berry, who spent his life in service to his Lord, his family, his friends, communities, and to the nation.
____________________
SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 146
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
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